Matteson, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Matteson, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Matteson lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Matteson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Matteson — the short answer
Matteson, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Matteson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Matteson's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Matteson
Each reading below is measured for Matteson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMatteson runs about 215 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMatteson sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Matteson is in
Matteson sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Matteson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Matteson
Every plant below cleared Matteson's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Matteson?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Matteson
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Matteson, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Matteson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Matteson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MATTESONPFAS · 2400 ft
- MILLER CHEVROLETBrownfields · 2500 ft
- GERBER COLLISIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HYUNDAI OF MATTESON LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Mobil Oil #16702Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Venture Store #17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #1932Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- IL0117Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Goodyear Tire & RubberUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Matteson Police DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Continental Baking CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Sam's Club Fueling Station #8154Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Matteson's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Matteson.
Total Sites
1,734
within ~10 miles of Matteson
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
30 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Matteson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Matteson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Matteson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Matteson — PFAS (32 sites) and Superfund (30 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Matteson
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Matteson average
Your land is one point inside Matteson
Everything above resolves to Matteson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Matteson Average
Matteson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Matteson
- ●One soil character for all of Matteson
- ●Frost dates read at Matteson's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Matteson's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Matteson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Matteson, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Matteson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Matteson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Matteson average
How we know this about Matteson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Matteson’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Matteson
When does frost risk typically end in Matteson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Matteson typically lands around Apr 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Matteson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Matteson typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Matteson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Matteson sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 24, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Matteson?
The federal record around Matteson runs heavier than most — 1,734 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (847), the nearest PFAS record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Matteson?
From about Oct 8 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Matteson's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Matteson's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Matteson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Matteson's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,944 acres it covers and 1,734 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Matteson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Matteson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 7 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,734 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Matteson, the closest PFAS record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Matteson's boundary and the 5,944 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Matteson's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mattesonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Matteson's 5,944 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cook County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Cook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Matteson's 5,944 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Matteson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,944 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Matteson-wide figureread your own land →